Rising global food prices squeeze the world’s poor, By Ben Arnoldy, February 10, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “Amid the stalls of neatly stacked vegetables at this city’s Sarojini Market, Manju shops with her young granddaughter. Her bags have become lighter in recent months, as she’s cutting back on the basics. Food prices have risen sharply over the past year and Manju is even going with fewer onions, the ubiquitous ingredient that fills just about every Indian gravy dish. ‘The kids have stopped eating properly,’ she says. ‘They have lost the taste for food and are complaining.’ Families in many parts of the world – especially India, China, Mexico, Haiti, and Egypt, where food costs spiked in the past year – are making sacrifices and seeking alternatives. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) food price index hit an all-time high in December. This sparked concern that high prices just prior to the global recession could reflect longer-term structural changes in supply and demand that will imperil the poor’s ability to eat…”
Day: February 10, 2011
States and Health Care Programs
States must cut health care programs, By Julie Appleby, February 10, 2011, USA Today: “Lisa Huff says the state-funded Disability Lifeline program in Washington state has lived up to its name, helping her get counseling for depression, treatment for diabetes and support for her ultimate goal: getting a job. Now the program for low-income, temporarily disabled residents is one of many on the chopping block in Washington, where lawmakers face stark choices in closing a projected shortfall of $4.6 billion in their next two-year budget, 2011-13. At risk are some of the very programs seen as national models: a state-subsidized Basic Health insurance plan for low-income residents who don’t qualify for federal help – the first of its kind when it began 20 years ago – and services that help seniors and the disabled stay out of nursing homes, as well as insurance for 27,000 undocumented children…”
Military Veterans and Homelessness
Veterans more likely to be homeless, study says, By William M. Welch, February 10, 2011, USA Today: “Military veterans are much more likely to be homeless than other Americans, according to the government’s first in-depth study of homelessness among former servicemembers. About 16% of homeless adults in a one-night survey in January 2009 were veterans, though vets make up only 10% of the adult population. More than 75,000 veterans were living on the streets or in a temporary shelter that night. In that year, 136,334 veterans spent at least one night in a homeless shelter – a count that did not include homeless veterans living on the streets. The urgency of the problem is growing as more people return from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The study found 11,300 younger veterans, 18 to 30, were in shelters at some point during 2009. Virtually all served in Iraq or Afghanistan, said Mark Johnston, deputy assistant secretary for special needs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)…”